Nehalem rigg

[Anosh]

I've made a list of components for a Core i7 rigg:
[*]Asus P6T Deluxe
[*]Intel Core i7 920 2,66GHz Box
[*]Corsair XMS3 Twin3X DDR3 PC12800/1600MHz CL9 3x2GB
[*]Corsair CMPSU-620HXEU 620W

[*]Antec P182 Black
[*]3x Noctua NF-S12-800 120mm
[*]2x Noctua NF-P12 120mm
[*]Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme (1366)

I'm planning on an OC från stock 2.6Ghz to 3.8-4.0Ghz.
The computer would be used for programming, games, movies and sometimes MATLAB.


What I currently have is:
[*]Pentium 4 820D
[*]74GB raptor
[*]1GB ddr2 667Mhz
[*]SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4850

so I'm gonna reuse the HDD and GPU from my old rig.
I figured if I'm gonna upgrade I might as well upgrade to i7 since I don't plan on an overhaul
for quite sometime and since my previous computer is a DELL 600 XPS I
can't reuse the PSU nor the CASE due to custom dell components.

Just to make things clear; the reason I'm not choosing Core 2:
1 Next upgrade won't take place anytime soon (perhaps i 2-3 years or at EOL of Core i7)
2 I figured I would probably be able to reuse at least the DDR3 by the time I upgrade.
3 A comparable Core 2 would probably only cost slightly less.


For specific questions I'm wondering about:
1 Will the ram be enough for the overclock? Should I go for 1333Mhz or perhaps the 1600Mhz Dominator (due to cooling) instead?
2 Should I get a ~450W PSU instead?
3 In general, what are your thoughts regarding components?

One thought I've had is whether I should get 2 ram modules then later add a third since the difference is mostly
negligible according to Tweaktown.




For a moment I'm feeling confused whether the RAM speed has anything to do with the overclock? Since on Tweaktown they're
using a i7 965 at 3.2Ghz with 1066, 1333 and 1600Mhz..

I figure since the 965 is using a multiplier of 24x and keeping the blck at 133Mhz the ram speed doesn't matter but since the 920
has a fixed multi at 20x increasing the blck means the ram speed is increased since 920 is supposed to use 1066Mhz.. am I correct?

 

[Dadofamunky]

Based on what I've seen, I think it's perfect. You're doing exactly the right thing. Don't get whiplash going from that p4 820! But get the three RAM sticks. And don't cheap out on the power supply. In fact, I'd get a PC Power & Cooling. But otherwise I think you're good. If I was building now...

 

[Anosh]

Regarding the PSU, the reason I'm going with the corsair is because people say it's quiet and ok quality.
Would a PC Power & Cooling run more silent?

 

[o1die]

I doubt it. Antec is pretty quiet; newegg had a 650w antec for $50 shipped yesterday; may still be available. Not as good as corsair or pc power and cooling, but adequate. I like their service. For warranty, seasonic can't be beat; many have 5 years.

 

[taltamir]

jumping from a pentium D to a nehalem? you should upgrade more often but for less money. I would recommend a high end wolfdale now, and a nahalem next year. (now, if you have more money now then you did before, then by all means upgrade to nehalem now, and to the next thing next year...)

 

[exar333]

Keep in mind that the 920 stock speed is 2.67, not 2.80. The 940 is 2.93 and the 965 is 3.2.

You should be able to do 3.4-3.6 pretty easily; some people are getting fairly high temps beyond 3.6-3.8 on air, so getting 4.0 may be pushing it. But you could get lucky.

You have a lot of memory speed choices. I can run my ram at my current OC anywhere from around 1050Mhz over 2000hmz. It's pretty awesome how you can choose the ram speeds so easily. Any speeds over 1333 for memory won't matter too much as triple channel at this speed seems to be enough bandwidth for pretty much everything...

 

[Anosh]

Sorry, you're completely correct about the speeds! I mixed up my current speed with what the 920 has.

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: Anosh
Regarding the PSU, the reason I'm going with the corsair is because people say it's quiet and ok quality.
Would a PC Power & Cooling run more silent?

PC Power and Cooling doesn't make silent PSU's (Not even the silencer series are really "silent"), but they are the best PSU's I have ever used. The Corsair should be quieter than the PCP&C and they are also generally very high quality.